A Look at Zonaman Traditions

GNN reporter Rakiko Lowtide spent several days on the mysterious world of Zonama Sekot and was ablt to view some Ferroan traditions surrounding Lanya.

While visiting Zonama Sekot for several days, I was able to view and be part of some of the local Ferroan traditions. The Ferroans are part of the original colonist of the planet. They still are an important community and live a usually pastoral live, spread in many villages in their area. Blue skinned, they are rumoured to be related to other similar species, like the Wrooarianor or the Pantoran, and a lesser extent to the Chiss without evidence however. They are sometimes mistaken, although their cultures, which forge their personas, are different.

Reporters visiting during Lanya’s birthday party

Native from the planet Ferro, they now incorporate elements of Zonama Sekot and the Potentium in their beliefs. Each village and clan has then built upon these common set of beliefs forming their own cultural identity. GNN has written about Zonaman Ferroans in the past kept contact with some of the Ferroan and I was invited to the birthday of one of their youngling, Lanya Windlow.

The Potentium held a birthday party for this young Ferroan who just turned twelve galactic years. In the custom of her village, the journey to adulthood begins at the age of 4 in Ferroan time (12 in galactic years). This prompted a visit by a priestess named Gwenith from Lanya’s mountain village to organise the ceremony. Other requirements are expected every year until 6, at which time if they pass the trials are considered adults by the community.

Lanya along with Tishia, Flint and Dango the R3 unit, speak with Ferroan Priestess, Gwenith

For Lanya, her rights began with a trial, which consisted of her guiding someone who was unable to take care of themselves to a remote area.

Master Flint Mokeev, husband to the Zonama Sekot Magister Salene Lusch, was chosen by Lanya to be the one she guided. Gwenith gave the master a drink which rendered him amnesic as well as unable to care for himself. Lanya was then instructed to guide the man by foot through the jungle and up a volcano to where the antidote to Flint’s condition lay. Lanya took the trial optimistically and left right away with Master Flint in tow.

Lanya with the help of Tishia meet with the creature of the cave.

After a two-days trek they finally made it to the top of the volcano, where they were met by a Ferroan Shaman from a village that oversees the area. With her blessing they entered the main cave and found the antidote, guarded by a sentient with arachnid type features and a need to live in extremely hot conditions, who seems to have been a Yuuzhan Vong experiment. In exchange for handing over the antidote, the creature demanded Lanya find her a companion to ease her loneliness in the lava filled cave.

The young Lanya again took this challenge with exuberant optimism and was able to obtain a pet from the Langhesi from a nearby community. The Langhesi, a red-skinned race, are experts in genetics and bio-engineering and are known to create exotic creatures for customers around the Galaxy. In this case they engineered a small lizard able to cope with the extreme temperatures of the volcano.

A period of relaxation after Gwenith gave Lanya the village’s blessing

After finishing her trial, Lanya returned with the help of Tishia and her companion Treeku, and was blessed by the Priestess for finishing her first step to adulthood. GNN was glad to have been a part of Lanya’s celebration and gain an insight into a cultural ritual. Thousands if not millions or billions of these rituals take place around the Galaxy, and by understanding each others, it would probably be a much more peaceful place.

“Blue skinned, they are rumoured to be related to other similar species, like the Wrooarianor or the Pantoran, and a lesser extent to the Chiss without evidence however.”

My theory is that there is a “family tree” among some of the blue near-human species and that wroonians, pantorans, and ferroans may have all sprang from a common ancestor untold aeons ago. I believe that a proto-blue folk stock was genetically engineered by some vanished species and then from there tweaked further to adapt them to their respective new homeworlds.

I’d put the Chiss in a separate branch of the near human family tree though.